The invention relates to a foldable sliding and to a carriage for this foldable sliding wall.
In order to separate or form rooms or room areas, for closing room openings or window openings and for covering fronts or facades often wall elements, such as sliding doors are used, which are mounted, possibly mounted so as to be rotatable, on carriages that are displaceable along a rail. Sliding doors of this kind are made for example from transparent glass, wood or metal. Often, the wall elements are coupled with one another, so that the combination of all elements forms a foldable sliding wall or a folding sliding shutter. Individual wall elements or a plurality of wall elements combined with one another are also used in furniture units, particularly in wardrobes.
In [1], U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,522B1, a sliding-rotating leaf system is disclosed that serves for enclosing a balcony with glass and that comprises several sliding-rotating wall elements, which are supported each with two rollers and which are movable separated from one another along a guide rail that is provided with coupling elements, which can be bought into engagement with a coupling piece provided on top of the sliding-rotating leaves that can be rotated as soon as a coupling piece is engaged in a coupling element and one roller is decoupled from the rail.
In [2], U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,91662, a further sliding-rotating leaf system used for glazing balconies is disclosed with sliding-rotating leaves that are also supported with two rollers and are movable separated from one another along a guide rail towards a coupling element, where the sliding-rotating leaves are rotated by completely decoupling one of the rollers from the rail.
In [3], U.S. Pat. No. 6,301,833B1, discloses a clamping or coupling device for sliding-rotating leaf systems as disclosed in [1] and [2].
In [4], U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,258B1, a movable wall is disclosed that comprises two sets of guide rails, along which the wall elements can be moved into a parking region. The guide rails comprise a branch in the parking region, from which a straight rail element and a bent rail element are leaving. Each of the wall elements is suspended on two carriages, of which one is guided into the straight rail element and the other into the bent rail element. By this, the wall elements are turned by 90° and for example parked aligned in parallel to one another on a wall. Hence, for turning the wall elements a dedicated rail system is required, which possibly needs to be adapted to the local conditions.
From [5], product catalogue of HAWA AG, “Baubeschläge für Faltschiebeläden” [“Structural fittings for folding sliding shutters”], 2006, page 36, a fitting for folding sliding shutters having an even or uneven number of wings, is known, which are installed for example on a window front or on the outer side of a balcony. The wing elements of the folding assembly are pivotally connected with one another by means of hinges. Such a folding assembly can be pushed laterally against a wall or used free standing as a light shield or wind shield. The displacement, opening or folding of the folding assembly, is realised without an additional rail element through manual intervention. The wing elements are thereby normally rotated at unequal speeds with the result that irregular folding processes arise in dependence upon the manual intervention.
From [6], US2010154174A1, a foldable sliding wall is known which comprises motorized carriages that are mounted on the front first wall element and on each following wall pair of wall elements. The motors of the carriages are thereby controlled in such a manner, that they travel with the required speed along the rail. Further, the motors are coupled with a drive element with which, the pivotally held wall elements can be driven, so that a wall element held by the carriage is not only moved with the required speed along the rail, but can also be turned, in order to perform the parking procedure. This device requires a plurality of motorised carriages, which comprise an extended drive mechanism and an appropriate control circuitry.